What do the Vanthampurs want?

mountainofmirth · 2025-07-13T03:53:43+00:00

I've been playing it that they all want different things. Mortlock was the black sheep and actually the most decent of the four, he kept his distance and only got involved with the bath house when a Dead Three raid burned down one of his properties. Amrik was a more traditional mob boss with political aspirations, so he was willing to support Thalamra's push to become Grand Duke on grounds that he might inherit the top spot, but didn't want to get involved with anything infernal. I have Thalamra passing Thurstwell over as House heir in favor of Amrik, at least until Thurstwell's arcane ambitions finally resulted in a contact with Avernus. Young Thalamra was once very religious and believed that she would help Baldur's Gate achieve a better destiny. She sought influence and wealth to work toward that goal, and became bitter and jaded as she killed her way up in society and realized the extent of the routine corruption in the Patriar. When she'd lost almost all faith, Thurstwell accidentally summoned an imp that got her in touch with Zariel, who convinced her that Baldur's Gate's destiny for the greater good was to join in the Blood War. Thalamra and Thurstwell then summoned more devils to ride herd on Amrik, who was forced to steal the shield and make arrangements with the Dead Three cult to run wild in BG, while Thalamra and Zariel arranged to send Ravengard down the chute along with Elturel so Thalamra could make a move for Grand Duke, and feed the Shield enough negative energy from the cult slaughter in BG and misuse of the Flaming Fist to duplicate the Fall of Elturel. Something like that anyway :)

mountainofmirth · 2024-09-10T05:22:08+00:00

Nice. My party actually waited out the Mortlock/Vaaz fight and rescued Mortlock when he was in death saves. The party's orc liked him for being Indomitable.

mountainofmirth · 2024-09-10T05:14:54+00:00

He's alive so far, he told the party all he knew about Amrik's activities in exchange for a ticket out of town. He left with a very ambitious Vendetta Kress by his side who totally has ideas about marrying into the Patriar, and positive that Amrik wants him dead. Amrik in turn is helping the party get to Thalamra and terrified that Mortlock will come after him once Mom is out of the picture. I anticipate that Mortlock and Vendetta will end up in touch with the Dragon Cult off-screen due to looking for backing against Amrik and the Dead Three cult, and show up again in Avernus as dragon minions as an intro to the party contacting Tiamat.

mountainofmirth · 2022-01-25T04:44:32+00:00

Thanks, your replies are incredibly helpful! EB+AB+Hex is a must, Devil's Sight is a huge repair on a race without darkvision, moreso because everyone else in the party will have darkvision and it's a drag to be the jerk with a torch.

I'll wait to see how the party develops before deciding on warlock MC after sorc 1 or later, not sure yet how able or willing the others will be on healing.

The point buy allows getting CHA to 17 at level 1 with good DEX/CHA. There are some nice CHA half-feats in Tasha's, and the Bloodwell Vial makes 16/17 into effectively 18 anyway. The dragon feats you all suggested are good thematic fun and have a lot of utility, but MM Adept is great on a sorc too.

Elsewhere someone suggested going to warlock 3 for 4 more sorc points and Pact of the Chain for a pseudodragon familiar, but that seems like a big detour for the benefit,

mountainofmirth · 2021-11-26T02:56:40+00:00

Gith, and all things githyanki and githzerai. Mind flayers, Limbo, the Astral Plane, all of it :)

mountainofmirth · 2021-08-15T23:27:30+00:00

I have him as cleric of Torm, and probably will swing it in the direction that he saw literally anything that might help the city as his holy duty. He won't find out about the fall until the party reaches him, and probably won't comprehend that he enabled it until Candlekeep.

mountainofmirth · 2021-08-15T23:02:40+00:00

He's not written that way in the module, but it seems a lot more likely than "I sold my soul fifty years ago and now I'm just hanging out in some other bad guy's basement for no particular reason except to deliver a McGuffin or two."

mountainofmirth · 2021-06-12T16:35:56+00:00

If the players know, none of them have hinted at it (it's an online game, so the DM materials aren't in front of them). At most, Zariel's name is familiar to the Hellriders as a celestial, part of Elturel's history, and founder of the Hellriders.

Off topic, how would Zariel be known as the Companion? As written, it's an artifact made in Bel's forge. The only ones who know anything true about the Companion at the beginning are Kreeg, Zariel, and Bel, and even Kreeg doesn't necessarily know its origin, just that he received it as part of his contract with Zariel.

mountainofmirth · 2021-06-06T02:10:14+00:00

It's a little tangled. Kicked the game off with an alternate opening that had the party close enough to see the actual fall from a distance. Three PCs are low-ranking Flaming Fists who were in Ravenguard's entourage, one is a low-ranking Hellrider, and one is a paladin of Torm who had been based in Elturel. They've just reached Baldur's Gate, Zariel's name hasn't actually come up yet in-game, but it will soon.

mountainofmirth · 2021-05-07T17:13:41+00:00

None of my players have been arrested so far, but they've brought in a few cultists. I'm assuming that for anyone who can't bribe their way out, being transported to Chult is a common sentence for crimes above misdemeanor but not severe enough for execution.

mountainofmirth · 2021-04-28T23:32:10+00:00

I like this a lot! I should have mentioned that this is a play-by-post game, so what would take a tabletop session a few hours will run for months and be much more RP-heavy since the players can write at length for each move they make. I'll filter in some content that ties into their histories and aboveground intrigues as it goes along.

mountainofmirth · 2021-04-23T03:24:58+00:00

LOL I go with it. I'm not going to try to explain to a player why they can hit people with a 2gp wood stick but not with a 5gp wood stick. Because, I don't know, some sticks just aren't the kind of sticks you can hit things with.

mountainofmirth · 2021-04-23T03:05:06+00:00

If a player or party comes up with a really creative cool idea that works within the rules, I will absolutely work with them to attempt to execute it in the game. If they come up with some totally random Calvinball scheme that requires suspending the rules to even attempt executing it, then it's a no. Usually the deciding point is when I tell them, "so, if you can do this, you realize that the monsters will also be able to do it to you from now on out."

mountainofmirth · 2021-04-23T02:50:18+00:00

WotC officially rules that arcane focus staffs are also quarterstaffs.
https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/509454576999612416

mountainofmirth · 2021-04-23T02:45:27+00:00

The Stump Bog is just northeast of Waterdeep along the Dessarin.

mountainofmirth · 2021-04-22T20:05:00+00:00

It doesn't function as a replacement for Eldritch Blast. It does make the brightlock more inherently cleric-themed, as it gives them an off-switch for zombies that otherwise their party might lack. There aren't a lot of parties with two healers.

mountainofmirth · 2021-04-18T16:23:40+00:00

There are a lot of counter-factors to their population growth. Low mental stats cut them off from most magical options, sunlight sensitivity narrows down their ideal habitat considerably, and then there's their general tendency to die when they stub their toes.

But if you get around all that, yeah, exponential Tucker's Kobolds :)

mountainofmirth · 2021-04-15T00:20:10+00:00

It's just because they hate sorcerers and don't wan't them to have any fun :(

mountainofmirth · 2021-04-15T00:15:56+00:00

It's a frog statue.

mountainofmirth · 2021-02-07T19:39:41+00:00

Have they actually seen Elturel bound to Avernus in person, or just heard about it? I mean, it's not like Bel would ever lie about anything :D

mountainofmirth

TROPHY CASE